Introductio brevis ad Philosophia,

Bookseller Notes

A superb unpublished seventeenth-century manuscript of lecture notes likely from the University of Paris interleaved with a series of engravings produced as a formal supplement for students.The manuscript represents an introductory philosophical curriculum. While interesting enough for content alone (seventeenth-century pedagogical manuscripts are themselves relatively uncommon), this text is notable because it is interleaved with engraved philosophical charts and diagrams. Produced by enterprising printers, these plates allowed students to forego the task of reproducing detailed images by hand. It is unclear whether the prints were purchased separately or within a blank notebook, but the similarity of binding in the handful of surviving like-copies suggests the latter. It's possible that the printer had a range of options across a range of budgets. The twelve plates are signed by Grard Jollain (active from 1660, d. 1683), who worked in Paris in the Rue St. Jacques at the sign of the City of Cologne. The formula of Jollain's imprint suggests a date of about 1670, which suits the content; by the last years of the seventeenth century, Aristotelian modes were increasingly supplanted by the radical 'mechanical philosophy' of Descartes.Similar Jollain engravings survive interleaved in Parisian student notes from the period: UPenn Ms. Codex 847 (a 1682 Paris manuscript on Aristotle's Metaphysics); Folger Library V.a.476 (olim MS Add 847; a 1669 manuscript on Aristotelian logic); Yale Beinecke Osborn b43 (student notes on philosophy, logic, and ethics from the University of Paris in 1672-73), and Getty 2014.M.22 (1686 student notes on philosophy from the Collge du Plessis in Paris). The present set is unusual in that it has portraits of European monarchs amongst the knowledge trees and logic diagrams.(See: L. Brockliss, "The Moment of No Return: The University of Paris and the Death of Aristotelianism" Science & Education, vol. 15 (2006) 259-78; D. A. Lines, "Moral Philosophy in the Universities of Medieval and Renaissance Europe," in History of Universities, vol. XX, no. 1 (2005) 38-80.)